When children playing in his street
kicked their football through his hedge for the umpteenth time, Alastair
Wood decided enough was enough.

Not only could they not have their ball back, but
he was going to keep it until he received an apology.

To his astonishment, however, the 40-year-old father-of-two
found himself arrested in his pyjamas, handcuffed and bundled into the
back of a police car in front of his wife and crying daughter after being
accused of theft.

Yesterday he said: "The whole incident is absolutely
beyond belief - words can't describe how ridiculous it all is.

"It’s totally changed my attitude towards
the police. I just don’t have any confidence in them any more."

Construction manager Mr Wood and his wife Joanne,
37, moved into the street in Preston, Lancashire, hoping for a safe neighbourhood
in which to raise their children, Liam, 16, and Ellie, six.

But instead he claims they have repeatedly had to
endure children kicking footballs through their hedge and into their garden.

"There have been occasions when my wife has
been doing our front garden and she's been smacked in the face with a
leather football," he added. Matters came to a head when he came
across brothers aged 18 and nine scrambling through his hedge trying to
retrieve their football.

"One of them asked me if I could get his ball
back out of the hedge," he said. "He had been climbing all over
the hedge to reach the ball, so I got hold of it and carried on walking
up the pathway.

"The youngest child then started having a tantrum
and started screaming and shouting that he wanted his ball back.

"I just thought if he can't ask for the ball
back politely, then he's not going to get it back at all. So I put the
ball in the house and thought nothing more of it."

Mr Wood claims the boys' father, Stephen Burns -
who works for the Crown Prosecution Service - came round to confront him,
leaving him so worried that he rang the police.

Two days later a community support officer called
round and urged him to return the ball, saying it could technically be
treated as theft, but Mr Wood said he would not back down until he received
an apology.

At that point he expected common sense to prevail
- but instead the day after a Pc came round and threatened to arrest him
on his doorstep on suspicion of theft if he did not back down.

"I said 'Look, we've been through this, I'm
not going to give the ball back unless I get an apology'."

So he faced the humiliation of being handcuffed and
marched to a patrol car in front of his neighbours while his daughter
looked on in tears. But events turned into a farce as the officer decided
not to take him to the station but instead drove him to the nearby church
hall and instructed him to thrash it out with his local councillor - still
in his pyjamas and dressing gown.

"I think the police realised that they had no
power to keep me detained so they'd scored an own goal, so to speak,"
he said.

Finally, Mr Wood decided things had gone far enough
and returned the football to Mr Burns, receiving "a sort of apology".

"He told me he's going to be sending the kids
to a park to play football instead, so that's some progress I suppose."

Mr Burns said yesterday he had had no contact with
the police and did not know anything about his neighbour's arrest.

But he added: "If you don't return someone's
property, I would have thought it was perfectly right under English law
to be arrested for theft."

Lancashire Police said they had been called to deal
with a dispute between neighbours.

"One man was arrested when he refused to return
a football," a spokesman said. "After talks with the arresting
officer he agreed to return the ball and apologised.

"He was then de-arrested and the matter appeared
resolved."

Earlier this year the Daily Mail told how 68-year-old
Roy Markham, from Cubbington, Warwickshire, was arrested for theft after
a football from his police sergeant neighbour Stewart Bosworth's garden
smashed into his greenhouse.

Warwickshire Police are investigating after
Mr Markham complained about his treatment. Last night Mr Wood said he
was considering following suit.